Kristin Selihar
Senior Manager, On Demand Promotions, Comcast
Selihar fosters collaborative teamwork as she leads integral components of Comcast’s efforts around target segmentation marketing, email optimization, movie stunt project management and marketing, and more. She also leads her team’s relationship with media and trafficking to ensure all scheduling is fulfilled and optimized. “The most exciting part of this industry is the constant evolution of the entertainment landscape,” she says.
What makes you most excited about this industry as you advance in your career?
The most exciting part of this industry is the constant evolution of the entertainment landscape. As more and more entertainment options are introduced in the marketplace, consumer wants and needs change and our business has to adapt. With the emergence of new outlets for media consumption, it’s critical to be flexible with how we position Xfinity On Demand as the leader and the only place you need to get your entertainment fix. The drive to be current, relevant and tapped into our customer’s needs, makes my job as a marketer ever-changing. This makes me most excited about my career.
What 3 things make you successful?
1.) Organization. Organization has always been incredibly important for me to manage my responsibilities effectively. In my position I’m juggling relationships with a multitude of programmers, movie studios, and internal Comcast groups. The influx of emails and voicemails wouldn’t be manageable without an efficient way to organize all of the communications. My inbox is (laughably) over-organized which helps me tremendously as I’m managing multiple partners and projects.
2.) Prioritization. Prioritization took me a while to learn. Particularly when I first started my career, I wanted to do absolutely everything well, all at once. This isn’t realistic. I realize that being able to effectively prioritize your workload is one of the most important – if not the most important – elements of success. It’s also helpful to have a team to rely on, to be able to delegate tasks so my focus can shift to the work that truly needs my attention.
3.) Communication. In a world where email is a significant part of business communication, I know how important it is to be clear and concise. I always want to be cognizant of other people’s time and respectful of how much work everyone is managing. You can be thorough, without having to be overly verbose. I also think it’s important to value personal relationships in business. I’m dealing with, and relying on, so many different teams. It is much more effective (and pleasant!) when those relationships are strong, as that tends to lend itself to more honest and open communication all around.
Who has been your biggest mentor and why?
I’m fortunate that my boss Dina has been my biggest mentor. She has a fresh perspective on nearly everything, and I’ve never seen her take anything at face value. She smartly challenges and she questions and in doing so, she pushes me to have a similar outlook. Just because something has always been done a certain way, that doesn’t mean it has been done the right way. This sort of thinking is what pushes the business to be better, and it has pushed me to be better in the work that I do as a result.
